This intellectual biography of William Faulkner traces the author's attempts to liberate himself from the repressive Victorian culture in which he was raised by embracing the Modernist culture of the artistic avant-garde. Daniel Singal argues that, to accommodate the conflicting demands of these two cultures, Faulkner created a complex and fluid structure of selfhood based on a set of dual roles - one, a Modernist author writing on the most daring and subversive issues of his day, and the other, a southern country gentleman loyal to the conservative mores of his community. Indeed, Singal says, it is in the clash between these two selves that one finds the key to making sense of Faulkner and his work.